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TOP STORIES
Merck has agreed to acquire Afferent Pharmaceuticals in a $500 million deal. Afferent therapeutics to treat common, poorly managed, neurogenic conditions. Afferent’s lead investigational candidate, AF-219, is being evaluated in a Phase 2b clinical trial for the treatment of refractory, chronic cough as well as in a Phase 2 clinical trial in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with cough. Afferent stands to gain another $750 million if it meets certain milestones, valuing the deal at up to $1.25 billion.— BusinessWire, Fierce Biotech
LIFE SCIENCES
GlaxoSmithKline will invest $50 million in bioelectronics through Action Potential Ventures, aiming to fund companies like SetPoint Medical. — Mass Device
Dr. Richard Pazdur, head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s office of oncology products says too many drug developers are pursuing overlapping immunotherapy strategies to treat cancer. — Reuters
ScanDx claims to have developed an app that can detect bone fractures without X-rays called FraxturedDx. — PR Newswire
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Merck KGaA has doubled the amount of seed funding it provides to startups in its accelerator programs in Darmstadt, Germany and Nairobi, Kenya. — Fierce Biotech
PAYERS-PROVIDERS
UnitedHealth Group Inc. has appointed John Rex as its new CFO, a position he previously held at its subsidiary, Optum. He takes over for David Wichmann, who has served as president and CFO since 2014. — Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal
Carolinas Healthcare System faces an antitrust lawsuit from the state of North Carolina. The complaint alleges that it unlawfully imposed restrictions to prevent insurers from offering consumers a lower-cost provider and negotiated higher reimbursement rates to treat insured patients. — Healthcare Finance
TECHNOLOGY
Open Source Health has developed a platform to analyze biometric, genomic, molecular and patient-generated data. — Healthcare IT News
Jawbone acquired Spectros, a business that uses spectroscopy to create non-invasive molecular sensors, on the sly in 2015. — MobiHealthNews
Thomas J. Perkins, who served as co-founder of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has died after a prolonged illness. — The New York Times
Shannon Fryery was named director of telehealth for North Mississippi Health Services. She has served in several different roles with North Mississippi Health such as director of nursing leadership, meaningful use coordinator, and nurse manager for outpatient services at Women’s Hospital. — Mississippi Business Journal
HealthFusion is integrating its software with ZocDoc in a collaboration deal. — BusinessWire
POLITICS
The Drug Enforcement Agency is waging a battle in Oregon to access patient medical records through the state’s Prescription Drug Monitor Program database in a push to limit the abuse of opioids. — The Daily Beast
A LITTLE BIT EXTRA
Deepak Chopra has launched a wellness app, Jiyo. It taps data from sensors in the user’s phone and other fitness devices to offer targeted tips for brief tasks that are supposed to improve your well-being. — TechCrunch
